what to remember from January 23, 2024

Israel announced its heaviest single-day military loss since the start of the Gaza war on Tuesday, as a US envoy arrived in Cairo to discuss a truce and the release of hostages.

An advisor to US President Joe Biden for the Middle East, “is located in Cairo” before other stops in the Middle East, to discuss a “break” in the hostilities in order to obtain the release of the hostages, kidnapped during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, the White House announced on Tuesday, January 23. On the front, the Israeli army announced its heaviest military loss in one day since the start of the war in Gaza. The territory is threatened “of imminent famine”, also denounced the UN in Geneva. Franceinfo summarizes what you need to know about the day.

Israel’s rejection of two-state solution ‘unacceptable’, UN repeats

The Israeli government’s rejection of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel risks “prolong the conflict”, the UN Secretary General declared to the Security Council on Tuesday. “Last week’s clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable”said Antonio Guterres during this Council meeting in the presence of numerous foreign ministers. “This refusal, and the denial of the right of the Palestinian people to have a state, could indefinitely prolong a conflict which has become a major threat to international peace and security”he added in New York.

The small besieged and devastated Palestinian territory is under threat “of imminent famine” denounced the UN in Geneva, while at least 1.7 of the 2.4 million inhabitants have fled their homes, many massing in the south where they live in very precarious conditions.

An American envoy to Cairo to talk hostages and truce

A US envoy arrived in Egypt on Tuesday to discuss a truce and the release of hostages. According to the White House, Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden’s Middle East adviser, “is located in Cairo” to discuss the release of the hostages, kidnapped during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7. “One of the things he is discussing is the potential for a new hostage release agreement, which would require a humanitarian pause of some length,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council. He described the discussions as “serious”.

Israel announces its heaviest loss in a day

The spokesperson for the Israeli army announced the death of 24 reservists, killed the day before in the Gaza Strip. Most of them died when two buildings they were mining in the southern Gaza Strip collapsed after a rocket fired at a nearby tank. This is the heaviest daily toll on the Israeli side since the ground offensive in Palestinian territory. In Jerusalem, more than 200 people attended the funeral of one of the victims, Hadar Kapeluk, whose coffin carried by soldiers was covered with an Israeli flag.

Shooting at a hospital in the Gaza Strip

The Hamas Health Ministry announced that Israeli forces fired directly on a hospital in the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. “Israeli tanks fire heavily on the upper floors of the surgery building and the emergency building of Nasser Hospital, and dozens of injuries are expected”, says the ministry of the Palestinian Islamist movement. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army, which had claimed earlier to have surrounded the city, did not comment on these allegations.